Cambridge, U.K.—Lab21 Ltd., a global player in the personalized medicine and
clinical diagnostics markets, has
secured a worldwide
license from Cooperative Diagnostics to
use the latter company's suite of patents and
expertise for the development of Lab21's growing pipeline of molecular
diagnostic kits.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Cooperative
Diagnostics, based
in Greenwood, S.C., has undertaken
what it calls "completely innovative approaches" to develop novel molecular technologies
by using
biophysical models and statistical bioinformatics. The company already has
successfully commercialized a series of assays in the infectious disease
area to demonstrate the capability of their technology.

"Lab21 has established a global business
in immunodiagnostic
assays. The company is also developing a pipeline
of nucleic-acid tests. The Cooperative Diagnostics technologies bring
powerful new tools to our
development capability including fifth
generation real-time PCR technology and we expect to launch our first CE
marked companion diagnostic assays
using this technology during the
first half of 2012," said Graham
Mullis, CEO of Lab21, about the deal. "These tests will be commercialized through
our
international distribution networks and particularly through our key
global OEM partners."

Dr.
Berwyn
Clarke, chief scientific officer at Lab21, noted that as part of this agreement Lab21 has exclusive use of this technology on a set of defined biomarker
targets,
particularly in the oncology and infectious disease areas. "Preliminary
work has shown that assay development times can be reduced
significantly
and that performance is often better in terms of existing gold
standards of sensitivity and specificity," Clarke added. "We expect the
technology to
deliver a substantial number of new assays in the first 12 months and
will be of significant interest to pharmaceutical companies needing
to
fast track companion diagnostic development."

For Cooperative Diagnostics, the deal means the ability to accelerate
its rate of developing and deploying tests, noted the company's president and founder, Dr.
Brent C. Satterfield, who added, "We are confident that our
technology
will provide a springboard to strengthen Lab21's continued growth into
the coming years."